I’m excited and honored that my new book, The Immigrant’s Refrigerator, has been named a finalist for the Institute for Immigration Research New American Voices Award. My thanks to FallForTheBook.org and the judges, and congratulations to the other finalists. I look forward to attending the award ceremony in October.
From the website:
Hernán Díaz, Elena Georgiou, and Renee Macalino Rutledge have been named finalists for the inaugural Institute for Immigration Research New American Voices Award. This post-publication book prize was created to recognize recently published works that illuminate the complexity of human experience as told by immigrants, whose work is historically underrepresented in writing and publishing. Díaz, Georgiou, and Macalino Rutledge will attend the award ceremony at Fall for the Book on Thursday, October 11 at George Mason University, where the winner will be announced.
The post-publication prose book prize was judged by Helon Habila, Madeleine Thien, and Maaza Mengiste.
The Immigrant’s Refrigerator is a collection of thirteen elegantly crafted stories, each of them structured around the themes of migration and the search for a new life in a new land. Georgiou explores in exquisite detail and haunting images her characters’ drive to seek meaning and acceptance in a world that is often distrustful of the “other”. The chaos of New York city, where most of the stories are set, gives the collection a greater poignance; the city becomes a maze where all the characters, both native and migrant, become equal in their desperate search for love and meaning in a world often devoid of both.
– Judge Helon Habila